


A Chance Encounter

by Kishirokitsune



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Crystal Tokyo Era, Gen, Kunzite and Zoisite are brothers, Reborn Shitennou, Secret Relationship, Usagi and Zoisite become friends, Zoisite is very nosy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26185693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kishirokitsune/pseuds/Kishirokitsune
Summary: Over breakfast one morning, Izou ponders what it is that feels so different about Kun lately. He latches onto the single thought of Kun having a secret girlfriend that he's hiding from him, and decides there's only one way to find out what's going on: He'll follow Kun and see for himself.
Relationships: Aino Minako/Kunzite - hinted
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	A Chance Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my WIP folder for a while, so I figured I should sit down and finish it while the mood still strikes me. I think it was originally going to be a multi-chapter fic, but it works well as a one-shot as well.  
> I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> \----
> 
> Also, I tried to keep their names simple so you can tell who is who without trouble, but just in case:  
> Izou Miyamoto = Zoisite  
> Kun Miyamoto = Kunzite  
> Mifune Nishimura = Nephrite  
> Jei Takeda = Jadeite

Something was wrong. Or rather, something wasn't quite _right._

Izou Miyamoto couldn't name exactly what was bothering him so much; he wasn't sure there were words to appropriately describe it. All he knew was that there was something off about his older brother and that he was doing a magnificent job at hiding whatever it was.

Izou twirled a stray piece of his strawberry blond hair around one finger as he stared down his older brother, who paid him no mind and continued to read the morning newspaper. Their other two housemates – more like adopted brothers, really – went about their morning business as usual, not wanting to get dragged into whatever they thought Izou was planning.

Mifune Nishimura was the only one really trusted to work in the kitchen, especially first thing in the morning, and so he was standing at the stove whipping up a simple breakfast. He'd pulled back his wavy brown hair to keep it out of the way and donned the one apron they had; a frilly pink thing originally gifted to him as a joke. (He still glared at Izou whenever he had to wear it.)

The fourth and final member of the household was Jei Takeda, a young man with short, golden blond hair, who looked less than awake as he sat at the table next to Izou. His head was resting in one hand as he stared blankly ahead, drifting in and out of sleep while a cup of rapidly cooling coffee rested on the table in front of him.

“Kun, pass the salt,” Mifune requested, reaching out to accept the small bottle as the white-haired man wordlessly handed it to him. Mifune thanked him and went back to cooking. Before long, he slid a plate of scrambled eggs onto the table. He raised an eyebrow when the three men didn't go for it like a flock of ravenous vultures.

Izou moved first. He slowly began forking egg onto his plate, still staring unblinkingly at Kun, who finally took notice and lowered his newspaper.

“Is there a problem, Izou?”

“Nope!” The blond replied cheerfully. He blinked at last and quickly finished taking half of the scrambled eggs, causing Mifune to grumble discontentedly. “Just thinking. Hey, you didn't get a hair cut recently, did you?”

Kun sighed and raised his paper back up. “No, I did not.”

Izou hummed in a thoughtful manner, letting it drop for the moment so he could eat. Asking about his hair had been a wild shot in the dark, but at least his brother wasn't treating him with suspicion for the moment. Still, he needed to tread more carefully. He needed to make Kun think he wasn't trying to figure out his secrets.

Which meant, naturally, he needed to start up his favorite game called 'how fast can Mifune lose his temper?'

“So, Mifune, the stars tell you anything interesting today?” He asked in a playful tone, grinning at the brunet. “Wanna tell us our horoscopes? The weather? Oh!” He clasped his hands together dramatically, trying not to laugh as Mifune's face slowly began to redden. “Is today the day you finally find your one true love?”

“The stars have nothing to tell you if all you're going to do is treat it as a joke,” Mifune growled through clenched teeth, trying his hardest not to take the bait.

Izou gasped mockingly, looking at the other man with wide green eyes. “Why, Mifune! You should know I would never treat something as important as _true love_ as a joke!”

Kun suddenly rustled his newspaper and cleared his throat. “Izou, that's enough. Leave him alone before he decides to poison all of the food.”

“Strangling would be more satisfactory,” Mifune mumbled.

Something about how quickly Kun intervened was enough to redirect Izou's thoughts, bringing to light something he hadn't thought to consider, mostly due to how ridiculous it was. He apologized brusquely to Mifune, who warily accepted it and kept an eye on the young blond for several long minutes before giving up on trying to keep up with what was going through his mind.

Izou began eating again, trying to organize his thoughts. It didn't seem possible. In fact, it sounded downright crazy the more he mulled it over, but what else could it be? And how was he supposed to broach the subject without his brother shutting him down immediately?

It would take planning. Very careful planning and precise timing for his words to have the most impact. He couldn't let himself charge recklessly ahead. After all, he wasn't Jei.

Kun reached for his cup of coffee and brought it to his lips for a sip, completely unaware of his younger brother's knowing grin.

“So what's her name?”

Three things happened as that “innocent” question was posed. First, Mifune dropped his spatula and turned to look at Izou incredulously. Second was Kun coughing and accidentally spitting coffee all over his newspaper. And third was Jei awakening with a jolt as his elbow slipped, knocking over his cup, and he pitched forward into the table.

A faint shade of pink colored Kun's cheeks as he avoided meeting his brother's gaze. “She's just a friend.”

(Jei groaned miserably as he sat back up.)

“So there _is_ a girl!” Izou's grin widened. By some miracle he'd frayed an end of his brother's secret with a simple question and he knew from experience that it wouldn't take much more to unravel the whole thing.

Unless Kun left.

Izou's glee slipped away as he also stood, calling out for his brother to return. An icy glare from him was enough to prevent him from giving chase immediately. Disappointed, he sat back down and pouted at what remained of his breakfast.

“That's what you get for celebrating a victory before you've actually won,” Mifune remarked.

Irritated, Izou crossed his arms over his chest. He was already planning how to catch Kun unaware – a truly impossible quest – and see the mystery girl with his own eyes. There just _had_ to be a girl. There was no way there wasn't with that reaction.

As Jei groaned in pain and dismally regarded his coffee-soaked sleeves, Izou excused himself from the table.

He had an idea.

**Day 1**

Izou was woefully unprepared for his self-appointed task.

Okay, so secretly following his older brother through the streets of the city had sounded like a good idea at the time. No, scratch that, it was a _brilliant_ plan. The greatest one he'd come up with in years! It was so simple that there was no way he would fail!

Though proper clothes would have been a really good idea.

He grimaced as another giggling group of girls walked past him, whispering and pointing at his star trek pajamas and slightly oversized gray t-shirt. He knew his hair wasn't much better either, but there hadn't been time to style it to perfection! At least he had remembered shoes.

He had a mission to accomplish! A very important and not-at-all frivolous mission which was certainly not borne from utter boredom and pure nosiness. (Okay, maybe Mifune was right. He really needed to start looking for a job.)

A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he cast his eyes skyward, catching a glimpse of one of the great crystal towers as he did so. As always, it filled him with a sense of peace.

When Izou refocused on his mission and looked back down to see how much further along Kun had gotten, he was mildly surprised he couldn't find that familiar head of white hair anywhere. “Damn,” he muttered. “Must be these pants.”

**Day Two**

He was _much_ better prepared the next morning. First of all, he was properly dressed and his strawberry blond hair was tamed back into a ponytail. Secondly, he had binoculars. Nothing could go wrong if he had those.

Unless, of course, he ran around a corner and smacked right into a young woman with blue hair, knocking both of them over. He hurriedly uttered apologies, helping her gather up her belongings, while frantically scanning the crowd for his brother.

Once again, he'd lost him.

Dejected, Izou quietly bid the young woman farewell, never noticing the way she looked at him with such suspicion.

**Day 17**

Izou was beginning to suspect that Kun was on to him.

There was no other explanation for why day-in and day-out he would somehow lose track of his brother in the streets of Crystal Tokyo no matter how hard he tried to keep an eye on him. All it took was a split second where he had to look away to avoid traffic and suddenly Kun was gone. Poof. Disappeared without a trace. Like he was some kind of white-haired ninja.

But Izou was nothing if not stubborn and he kept at it, determined to find out who Kun's mystery girl was. The others had joked that he'd have better luck hiring a private detective to tail him, but that took away from the spirit of it all!

No, Izou had to do it on his own.

Things were looking up on the seventeenth day of following Kun. There was a brief moment when Izou thought he'd lost him, but some quick thinking put him back on the right trail and he patted himself on the back in an exceedingly (well deserved) self-congratulatory manner. Even better, he managed to keep his celebrating to a minimum when Kun stopped outside of a warehouse.

The warehouse was perfect! Construction materials were arranged all around the lot, which made for excellent hiding places while still giving Izou the chance to see what was going on. There was a part of him that whispered that it was probably considered trespassing, but that was such a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, so he ignored that voice.

Izou settled in behind his chosen hiding spot behind a stack of steel beams that were covered with a tarp. And then he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Izou yawned and checked his watch to see how much time had passed. The fleeting thought of being led on a wild goose chase crossed his mind, but he ignored that just as easily as his musings of whether or not he was trespassing.

There was the sound of high heeled shoes striking against the asphalt – a fast-paced click in time with footfalls – and then a young woman in an orange miniskirt came into view.

Izou's eyes went wide and his breath caught in his throat at the sight of the one and only Sailor Venus, fearless defender of their planet and apparently Kun's _secret girlfriend_!?

He backed up in shock, not paying a bit of attention to his surroundings.

As a result, he backed directly into something and freaked out so badly at the possibility of being discovered that he flailed and managed to recover into a weird slow fall, catching himself with his hands and only earning a slight scratch against his palms.

“I am so sorry!”

The whisper came from in front of him, airy and feminine in tone, and Izou lifted his head to find a pair of wide blue eyes staring back at him. He stared for a moment. She looked... _familiar_ some how.

But that was ridiculous.

He would remember someone as cute as she was.

Izou brushed it off and decided it was only because her hairstyle was so similar to the way the royal family wore theirs – the twin buns high on either side of her head while the rest of her hair was left to freely fall in a pair of ponytails. Though she had gotten a little more creative with hers and had looped the ends back up into the buns.

He grinned at her in a charming manner. “It's alright. I would have freaked out over anything, I think. No harm done!”

Strangely, his words didn't seem to put her at ease. She continued to fidget and didn't once take her eyes off of him.

“I'm Izou, by the way. Izou Miyamoto.”

The young woman hesitated. “I, um, I'm Usagi.”

Izou waited for a last name, but when none came he figured it was none of his business. He certainly wasn't going to push and scare her off, especially when he had more important questions. “I don't suppose you know what's going on here, do you?”

Usagi looked away at last, biting at her lower lip as though worried about something. “No?”

“Oh, I was hoping you did. I've been following my brother for _weeks_ now, trying to find out about this girl he's been meeting up with. Which reminds me...” He got back up on his feet and walked to the edge of his hiding spot, peering out in the hope that Kun and _Sailor Venus herself_ were still there.

Naturally, they were not.

Izou swore without meaning to. “I'm _never_ going to figure this out!”

He had to stop and think. Clearly, he needed to change tactics because simply following his brother in the hope that he would slip up and reveal something wasn't working out at all. Maybe Mifune and Jei would agree to help? It was doubtful, but maybe worth a try. Jei was a journalist before he quit and went into novel-writing instead, so maybe he would have a few tips for proper investigation?

He got so caught up in his thoughts that he completely missed Usagi walking up next to him and also peering out from behind their hiding spot.

“Aw, gone again,” she said with a soft sigh. “Well, at least I have a name now, thanks to you!”

Izou blinked at her in surprise. “...what? Wait, who were you following? Why?”

Usagi grinned at him. “I work at the palace. I'm, um, a maid! A maid in the palace! And there's been all kinds of rumors about Sailor Venus having a boyfriend, so I wanted to check it out for myself and see if it was true. I guess it is...” She glanced back to where Sailor Venus and Kun were standing mere minutes before.

And all at once, Izou realized he had a golden opportunity.

He didn't need Jei or Mifune to get involved, especially when their involvement would include a great deal of unnecessary teasing before they would agree to anything.

No.

All Izou needed was to strike up a partnership with Usagi, the palace maid.

“It seems we have a goal in common,” he told her. “What do you say we team up? I'll tell you what I can about my brother and you can... well, I guess you can't say much about Sailor Venus, but I bet that together we can get to the truth of the matter!”

He waited with baited breath while Usagi mulled it over, apparently giving it some serious thought.

And then she nodded. “I think you have yourself a deal. And I know the _best_ bakery where we can talk!”

Izou happily followed his new friend and listened to her talk about whatever came to mind – which was mostly about how amazing the bakery was and how it was run by a dear friend of hers and how he absolutely had to try her cupcakes because they were the _best!_

It was easy to get swept up in her enthusiasm.

So easy that he nearly forgot the purpose of their trip to the bakery until they were both seated at a corner table with a drink and a cupcake each and Usagi easily segwayed back to what they were both out in the city for.

In the end, he wasn't sure how much he learned about Kun's secret rendezvous with Sailor Venus, but he did learn that Cyclone Bakery and Flowers made an absolutely heavenly angel food cake and resolved to come back as often as his diet would allow. He and Usagi separated near closing time with the promise to meet up in three days at noon to discuss anything new they learned.

Izou couldn't wait.


End file.
